After “The Once and Future Witches” by Alix Harrow

The Latin for ‘book’ is liber
As in: liberty
When one takes another’s books
They take their liberty
A book can be anything
But most commonly it is a story
And within that story
Knowledge

And when those stories are whispered
From parent to child
It’s the children’s turn to be taken
Sent off somewhere far
To forget their stories
Their knowledge

To forget themselves

It is not something that is lost
But taken
And things that are taken
Can be taken back

To be a thief can be an honorable thing

The Eastwood sisters
Got Avalon burned
And by the end of the book
There is no Avalon
But a single red petal

There is no Avalon
But there’s a baby named Eve
And the eldest sister
Wanders westward
To find stories
And build up the library again

This is not the first time this has happened